Ethics, Law, and Politics, Graduate Degree

An examination of the intersection of morals, ethics and truth

The Ethics, Law, and Politics MA is a program that covers basic philosophy with emphasis on topics in ethics, philosophy of law, and political philosophy. Our energetic and friendly small department of active teacher-scholars includes a number of faculty with expertise in ethics, philosophy of law or political philosophy, either contemporary or historical.

The department includes seven regular faculty members, plus part-time faculty.. In recent years, we have had, on average, eleven graduate students.

Course Requirements

The Ethics, Law, and Politics MA degree is offered on either a thesis or non-thesis basis. Students work with their advisors to develop their program. A student who opts for a non-thesis plan must complete 33 graduate credits. A student who opts for the thesis plan must complete 30 credits of graduate course work including six credits of thesis course work.

Graduate students in our program take most of their classes in upper division undergraduate courses that are open for graduate-level credit (sometimes on the basis of extra work and/or outside discussions with the instructor). Graduate students sometimes earn a portion of the remainder of their philosophy credits by means of independent study arrangements with individual faculty members.

Before seeking admission to our program, you should determine whether your interests fit our own range of competencies and interests. We generally admit students to the MA program whose backgrounds and interests are congruent with our own.

Admissions

Many of the students accepted into the MA program in philosophy have completed undergraduate philosophy majors or minors, though we also accept students with degrees in related areas and students with compelling interests or strong undergraduate backgrounds.

Normally, applicants should have an undergraduate grade-point average of B or better both overall and in philosophy courses. We occasionally admit students with lower averages if they can provide strong evidence that they are likely to do well in our program.

We do not require GRE scores for admission into the program. However, such scores will be taken into consideration by the admissions committee if they are available.